#with sy at the same time making sj more manageable but sj also making him significantly worse

[levemetal]

I love fics that have the Shen twins as twin peaks lords of Qing Jing, but let's be real: If there is one peak which SHOULD have two whole peak lords, it should be An Ding, the literal peak of logistics and paperwork.

Just feels like it would make An Ding's workload more manageable.

[helyft]

Shenbro au where, Shen Yuan wakes up inside the body of the scum villain's little brother. Shen Jiu and Shen Yuan join the Qing Jing peak togather. Shen Jiu is way more popular than SY, even if it's not really a good thing. SY doesn't really leave the peak unless he must, so not many people know that SJ has a brother, let alone one who is a fucking saint.

After fixing and healing sqq like bob the builder, (transmigrator) SY is finally sure that SQQ isn't gonna fuck up his future even if he is left to his own device. But that doesn't mean SY will leave his big bro though, nope, He is just gonna go on his own little adventures while SJ is doing what-head-disiple-usually-do. Just temporarily yeah

It takes a lot to convince SJ, but with the help of YQY and their Shizun, SY manages to leave after promising SJ that he'll come back more often than not. It's not like he is planning on leaving forever, he will be back in time for the original to begin! Just to make sure his brother doesn't dig his own grave.

it's mighty fun, seeing monsters he had only ever read about with his own eyes, observing the wild life and noting down his adventures, if he didn't have SJ waiting for him back in the sect, SY might have just settled as a rogue cultivator.

SY is curious about how people in this day and age live. When he first came to this world, he was too busy trying to not die and keep his brother from pissing people off left and right. Now that SJ has calmed down a bit (he is still a little bitch but a likeable bitch atleast.) and canon is still a few years away, it's definitely the right time to enjoy the mundane activities and savoury street food!

But you know who else also leaves the sect to hunt down monsters for indefinite amount of time?

SY totally doesn't expect to run into future Bai Zhan lord while out in the wild (Wellll, not that he knows this is LQQ. ) but he is so glad he did! Otherwise he would have been mauled alive by a poisonous-clawed bear!

The amount of times they coincidentally meet eachother is actually suspicious. But SY doesn't mind. Who would mind being saved by a heavenly beauty (even if it's a man)? Sure, this guy might not talk alot, stare at him like he has grown another head and leave instantly after killing the beast that was about to attack SY, he sure is a eye-candy!

They get close soon enough. It can't be helped since they run into eachother every other week. SY even managed to fish out his surname! Which happens to be the same as Liu Mingyan's!

Liu-gongzi is actually nicer than he looks, turns out the reason he looked at SY as if he had grown a second head isn't because he dislikes him but because he looks identical to an unsavoury person Liu-gongzi knows!

SY learned quite a bit about him, like how he is part of a sect, how he only goes back to his sect once a month to show his face to his shizun, and how he even has a little sister. Liu-gongzi's company is a delight to have! He even lets SY observe a beast before killing it.

(if there is a slight voice whispering in the back of his head about the similarities Liu-gongzi has to a certain war god, he ignores it)

They don't really stick together, SY isn't really here to fight fight and fight, he is here to learn about the behind the scenes of PIDW, and enjoy his life the fullest before canon inevitably comes. Liu-gongzi on the other hand likes to mindlessly charge into battle. SY suspects that his head is somewhat empty other than thoughts about brawling with monsters.

Spending time with Liu-gongzi is...fun. It feels like he has finally made a friend who isn't mentioned by the original story. He is a little sad inside everytime they have to go their own way but somehow, they end up meeting always so he can just think that they are meant to be together right? In a platonic way ofc.

Time passes by in a flash, and before SY realises it, Canon is already looming over.

It's about time he heads back to Cang Qiong.

(and if he catches sight of a very, very familiar man, who has become even more beautiful since the last time SY saw him, wellll, that's a sorry for another day.)

[the-tyler-as-in-skyler]

posting more svsss fanart this time half finished doodles of a lil au that’s been cooking in my brain for a few weeks

fox shen yuan aus have my heart and soul anyways he gains more tails the higher his cultivation is :33

plot points for this below the cut (also apologies for the terrible image quality she’s been through a lot (my google drive))

- shen yuan is a fox demon, he gets popped into a very young fox demon similar to how airplane gets dropped into baby shang qinghua (airplane is sqh in this au but that’s not plot relevant yet)

- little fox shen yuan, still getting the hang of his powers and creating a human form, runs into shen jiu in the woods, realizes this “random” teenager looks a lot like he did in real life, and unconsciously shifts to look like him

- shen yuan and shen jiu become kind of friends (in that shen jiu feels like he needs to protect shen yuan because he thinks he’s naive and also thinks it’s funny when he’s a bitch and shen yuan also thinks that shen jiu is funny when he’s a bitch and that he should probably keep this kid from dying or screwing himself up with his clearly demonic cultivation too bad)

- shen yuan eventually figures out how to look fully human (prior to him and sj going to cang qiong mountain)

- sy and sj become disciples on qing jing together! how does shen yuan cultivate? well sj is the only one who knows he’s a demon but they manage to swipe a fox demon cultivation manual from qing jing peak’s library for him

- when the qing generation ascends shen yuan leaves cang qiong to go be a wandering cultivator and write a bestiary

(at this point you may be asking, where is zhuzhi-lang? he’s in the doodles, why hasn’t he shown up yet? fear not, he is coming)

- while traveling shen yuan decide that the mortal realm is too boring and there are far too many papapa plants there so he travels to the demon realm to record more beasts

- at this point tianlang-jun is still the emperor of the demon realm, and, through shenanigans probably, shen yuan manages to save zhuhai-lang from a rather dangerous plant that mimics normal demonic plants and gets introduced to the emperor

- it does not take long for shen yuan to realize that this is luo binghe’s father and decide, hey, maybe he can help this guy and hopefully get both of luo binghe’s parents to survive so he can have a kind of normal life without the trauma (he is still masquerading as a human at this point and there’s quite a bit of controversy about the demonic emperor taking advice from a human cultivator, linguang-jun later mocks mobei-jun for ‘following in the late emperor’s footsteps’ when he takes shang qinghua as his primary advisor)

- this plan does not work, shen yuan is exposed to the cultivation world as a demon and a traitor and gets his ass tossed into the endless abyss so he can’t warn zzl and tlj about the plot against them

- (shen jiu goes to see him before he gets sent in: “why’d you do it?” “i… i wanted to try and let them (su xiyan and tianlang-jun) be happy together…”)

- sy is stuck in the abyss making himself a little house and strong arming the various horrors down there into liking him

- cut to shen jiu, now shen qingqiu, extremely bitter about the fact that the only person he considered a friend betraying him the cultivation world, and seeing baby binghe who looks just like the guy his friend got tossed into the the abyss for and figures out that this must have been what shen yuan was trying to protect

- shen qingqiu is livid and takes it out on binghe

- yet another cut, we know what bingge’s childhood was like, and binghe’s gets dropped into the abyss (sqq thinks that it’s fitting he sends the beast to the same fate that trying to protect him doomed shen yuan to)

- binghe wanders the abyss, being miserable, for several years before he comes across… a house? the bamboo house from qing jing peak? is he hallucinating? but no, it’s not quite the same, it’s made with whatever freaky bamboo equivalent grows in the abyss and there’s a pen with a six-legged carnivorous horse around the side of it

- shen yuan built himself a version of the bamboo house because he really liked it and he helped build shen qingqiu’s bamboo house as a sort of present/congratulations for ascending to peak lord status and he wanted a comfortable place to relax where he’s less likely to be attacked by a beast

- binghe is very confused when he is enthusiastically greeted by a fox demon who looks like his scummy teacher but is rather quickly endeared and intrigued

- they bond, shen yuan helps binghe find xin mo and they get out of the abyss and into the demon realm together with shen yuan acting as an advisor for binghe similarly to how he did with tlj, with the condition that binghe helps him release tlj and zzl from their prison

- this is the main catalyst for them going to huan hua in this au (most people have forgotten what sy looks like or they were too young to remember his trial even happening, it wasn’t anything super public because publicity for the great sects is very important so they kept things very hush hush)

- shen yuan reunites with zhuzhi-lang and tianlang-jun! it takes them a while to figure out how to properly break them out but they do manage it!

- at some point in the demon realm shen yuan and shang qinghua run into each other and clock that the other person is a transmigrator pretty quickly (they both have a habit of muttering in chinglish during court and they hear each other and do the spider-man point meme)

- sqh and sy bond and binghe and mbj don’t exactly know if they should be jealous about it, they’re very close and seem to share some sort of strange dialect that only the two of them speak and spend a lot of time together?? (they’re arguing and maybe kissing a little bc… cumplane my loves)

- shen yuan eventually has the misfortune of running into liu qingge (who survives here because i love him and i think that sy would at least try to prevent his death because he found him endearing when they were disciples), while sy is delighted that his shidi is alive he’s less happy about having cheng luan pointed directly at his throat in a secluded alleyway when he was just trying to browse the market of a town he remembered being pleasant

- reuniting with lqg leads to reuniting with the rest of cang qiong (and getting yelled at for his incompetence by shen qingqiu before they make up)

- shen yuan has (just barely) convinced binghe that torture is not the answer to solving his trauma so shen qingqiu does not get water prisoned but they aren’t trusted alone in a room together for a good long time

- eventually this probably ends in shen yuan collecting a harem on accident (not that he’s very upset about it but still, he’s confused how he managed this)

- neither binghe nor shen qingqiu are particularly pleased about the harem thing but like… they love shen yuan and if it makes him happy they’ll put up with these other idiots (they totally don’t like some of the other harem members what are you talking about? there’s nothing going on there stop asking them about it)

[joys-of-everyday]

The more I think about it, the cultivation world and academia are similar. High drop out rates? Reverence towards the people who 'make it to the end'? Meritocracy but not really? Age old 'talent' vs 'hard work' vs 'privilege'? Possibly just side effects of being learning institutions but yeah. Anyway, headcanons for peak lords as professors.

SQQ (SY) The chill professor everyone loves. Is often absent for months at a time doing field studies but comes back with loads of cool stories. Has a tendency to veer off course and everyone's grades may suffer because of how little time is actually spent on examinable material, but at least you'll enjoy yourself. He says he's only there for the fun and doesn't do much research, but you've spied a number of very big names going to him for advice. If you manage to make him drunk, his personality does a 180 and he complains extensively about everything, including his latest webnovel obsession.

og!SQQ (SJ) The salty professor everyone hates. Obsessed with rankings and citation counts, has a constant rivalry with LQG, and does the absolute minimum when it comes to undergrad teaching because he thinks it's a waste of time. He's convinced there's an agenda against him because he didn't get funding for the third time in a row and takes it out on the students. But damn does he know what he's talking about, and you've heard he's actually a genius, albeit one with complicated background. The few phd students he has are utterly enamored with him.

SQH Everyone forgets that he's not a student, including himself. When he teaches, it feels like he's giving a presentation and waiting for feedback. He answers questions with questions. Nobody knows what research he's doing, including the other members of department. Both Shens and LQG alike think he's a waste of space. But he seems to have some mysterious connections to a very fancy research facility up north.

LQG Absent professor. Literally cannot teach. Reads off last year's notes (written by other people) and calls it a lecture. But he's got many fancy awards under his belt for his research and the rest of the department talk about him with awe in their voice. If you take work to him, he will undoubtedly rip it to shreds, but not in a mean way. Half the students hate him. Half the students make him a meme. A few of them worship him like a god.

YQY The nice one. He teaches amazingly, heads a healthy research team, and has some banging papers under his name. The students know him as the best teacher, but behind the scenes he is literally keeping the department together. Wrangles with management and does a lot of outreach stuff on top of all of this. The students are convinced he literally lives on site because they keep seeing him at weird hours of the day. This is half true.

MQF The Professor. When you say 'professor', MQF is the person who comes to mind. The students think he is actually a robot, because they've never seen him do anything other than his job. His teaching is adequate but without personality, and he is extremely mild mannered. Unbeknownst to them, he is known as the 'mad scientist' of the department - he has a bizarre attitude to safety and often goes utterly crazy with experiments which are only just toeing regulations. A pioneer of his (somewhat niche) field.

QQQ Social justice warrior. The one who actually strikes when there's a strike on, and organises all of the diversity events. The student have mixed views on her. She struggled against a very sexist department back in her day and still gets a lot of hateful feedback, so she's learnt to take zero fucks. Which is cool but also means a lot of valid criticism gets taken as personal attacks. With all the drama, everyone seems to forget that she's actually a really big name in the field, receiving some fancy awards around the same time as LQG. Her phd group is surprisingly chill.

[web-novel-polls]

Smartest WN Character Submissions

Last Checked: October 31st, 2024 - Please check the original post for updates

Submissions End: TBD

Rules:

One character per response. Submit as many responses as you want, but please don’t submit the same character more than once unless you forgot something important (can also be fixed via asks).

Must be from a web novel or similar media (Ex: manhwa/manhua) with a web novel adaptation/source. 

“Smartest” can be based on anything from studies to martial arts to strategy to emotional intelligence. If you think they’re smart in any way, they’ll qualify & compete

Tournament Tag: #smartest WN character tournament

Major Spoilers for TYK/WOH, SVSSS, MDZS

Submissions

No Propaganda

Cui Buqu from Peerless: Wushuang

He Xuan from Heaven Official’s Blessing / TGCF

Jing Beiyuan from Lord Seventh / Qi Ye

Jin Guangyao from Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation / MDZS

You Huo from Global Examination / QQGK

Fei Du from Mo Du / Silent Reading

Submission: idk what to say without spoiling the whole novel

Carrd Link

Gu Mang from Yu Wu / Remnants of Filth

Submission: He is intelligent and clever enough to rise from a slave to a general and then become a high-profile spy in the enemy's camp. His intelligence is only compromised by his idealism and its resulting naivete. Even so, he's a genius. 

Ji Yushi from Mist [Unlimited]

Submission: He is somehow able to figure out and understand all the super complicated things that go on in the novel. Incredibly intelligent (and not just because of his hyperthymesia).  

Klein Moretti from Lord of Mysteries

Submission:

i'm not done with the novel yet but he's literally so smart!!

the way he can process information and make connections so quickly, the way he's always great at adapting his way of thinking and doesn't hesitate to change his conclusions when new information comes to light,,, (and the way he can use that to make others believe he knows everything when he's literally hearing about stuff for the first time and doesn't know shit? incredible)

i'm just so impressed by him all the time, i love him sm

Lloyd Frontera / Kim Suho from The Greatest Estate Developer / TGED

Submission: Excels in both long-term and immediate planning, if the standard for excelling is 'how to get the absolute most benefit out of the situation'. WILL use methods no regular person could ever think of.

Nie Huaisang from Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (MDZS)

Submission 1: He delicately wove a ten year revenge plot, manipulating people and evidence behind the scenes so deftly that even after having pulled his plan off, only a few people ever even learned of his involvement. 

Submission 2: Bro was several steps ahead years ahead all to get justice for his brother. bro was a lazy student in childhood, faced incredible loss, and decided fuck this im gonna plot my way to vengence. he did this all while not fighting people's assumption he was dumb from his school days, let them think the worst of me, it will only benefit me.

Qiyan Agula from Clear and Muddy Loss of Love / JWQS

Submission: She's an excellent schemer and manipulator, and is even able to easily adapt her carefully calculated plans when faced with major setbacks. Also able to rank first in very difficult scholarly exams among numerous other candidates. Incredibly clever and cunning.

Wiki Link

Shang Qinghua from The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System / SVSSS

Submission: 

Hear me out: he created the world he transmigrated to and managed to not get caught for spying on his sect. He worked for MBJ and CQ (at the same time) becoming the most trusted advisor of one and a peak lord in the other. While he didn't remember EVERYTHING from his novel, it was a literal life time before. He's a mental swiss army knife, jack of all trades. He's not the best at anything, SJ and SY are definitely smarter, LBH is for sure super clever, but SQH is able to keep up with them. (And not get murdered! Way to go Airplane!) 

Shen Qingqiu (Shen Yuan) from The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System

Submission:

He literally learned how to be a peak lord of the scholarly peak within months, even though his loveable unreliable narrator self makes it unclear how much knowledge he got from the original goods (cultivation and muscle memory are in tact to some degree, at least)

Textual evidence: “ As Shen Qingqiu had, since his arrival, been furiously reviewing various manuals, he had also recently seen a description of it.”(ch1) where he recalls a specific technique and uses it in the moment. “Shen Qingqiu had no say in any of it. As such, he had diligently trained for numerous days, single-mindedly seeking to make his abilities second nature…” (ch 1) yeah so this goes into the having to relearn everything category.

He’s also a walking monster/PIDW encyclopedia. I think his most impressive memory feat [spoiler] is navigating the Holy Mausoleum’s traps better than Tianlang-Jun. note that at this point it’s been years since he read the original book, the Mausoleum is very large, and yet he’s familiar with all the main rooms he encounters, and it’s been years since he read PIDW (the source book). He uses this knowledge to escape/outsmart Tianlang-jun.

Any intelligence he has is made up for by his loss of IQ points around the protagonist, though. And his general obliviousness to those around him.

Shen Zechuan from Qiang Jin Jiu / QJJ

Submission: He is the schemer of all time. Schemes within schemes within schemes. Incredibly clever and an excellent manipulator. He is everything. 

Song Qingshi from Mistakenly Saving the Villain

Submission: The scholar tyrant himself! He knows everything there is to know about medicines and poisons. A very well-read pebble. 

Wei Wuxian from Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation / MDZS

Submission: He is a genius and a visionary. He's invented numerous things that make it easier for the cultivation world to do their jobs. He also figured out how to control resentful energy.

Mod Propaganda: He grandmastered that Demonic Cultivation, man

Wen Kexing from Faraway Wanderers / TYK

Submission: 

Saw that someone submitted him without propaganda so here I am with propaganda! Wen Kexing is pretty much responsible for all of the plot stuff happening in Tian Ya Ke. At the same time, he does absolutely Nothing for the duration of the novel for his massive-scale revenge scheme to work out. And that's because he set it up so brilliantly that he didn't need to lift a finger for his enemies to deliver themselves up on a silver platter.  It was genuinely a domino fall: he only created the inciting incident, and then the pieces slowly but surely fell into place. Except the pieces were people, and if any SINGLE one of them decided they didn't want the Lapis Armor - the treasure Wen Kexing baited them with - then Wen Kexing's scheme would just fizzle out on its own. BUT. None of them could give up the pursuit of power. None of them could be satisfied with what they already had. And Wen Kexing perfectly understood those people's psychology and built his scheme based on that.  He really created this poetic justice situation where his enemies walked themselves to their deaths on their own, and only because they wouldn't stop doing the things that he wanted to take revenge for in the first place. Moreover, he set it up in such a way that he didn't need to commit attrocities while in 'the human world', and instead let his enemies expose themselves by 'not conducting themselves like human beings'. Wen Kexing only started killing when his enemies entered his world, the Ghost Valley. So it was not just poetic, it was also theater-level dramatic! Moreover, his scheme worked so perfectly that when Wen Kexing left partway through the final battle, one of his enemies actually finished up everyone else FOR HIM. And while Wen Kexing baited everyone with Lapis Armor, he also ensured that his father's promise to 'not let it fall into wrong hands' is kept - by destroying the key to it prior to kicking off his scheme. So ultimately, even if Wen Kexing died, his revenge would still be completed, AND the last man standing would receive a big fat Nothing for all the murder and plotting they did. And this is just about his revenge plot. He also sussed out a literal spymaster's true identity within like 11 chapters! Not to mention the whole, 'tricked a bunch of crazy murderers into thinking he was even more insane than them', which he did at age 9 (NINE!). Oh, he also staged a perfect coup within three years or less, somewhere between ages 18-21. And ruled over the Ghost Valley for 8 years when no other Valley Master before him lasted longer than 3.  Tl;dr: A LITERAL EVIL MASTERMIND! AND WE LOVE HIM FOR THAT! 

Rejected

Ballister Blackheart from Nimona

Reason: Not from a web novel

[coolshadowtwins]

SJ: We could just get him to leave MBJ alone.

YQY, who has screwed view of romance and relationships in general: But he’s in love??

SJ, who has the same issues piled on top of deep self loathing:…. You’re entirely correct.

The first time YQY sees bruises on SQH, he’s livid. That his Shidi! You better not be telling that demon your future knowledge, Shidi. That’s just for the sect! (He doesn’t say this, just smiles dangerously as he gives SQH some medicine)

And on top of all this! YQY knows that MBJ was the one to kill SQH! Why does SQH love him?! Well, love is love so YQY will just have to have A Talk with the demon. But he can’t do that if the demon realm is against the human realm!

And the best way to make sure that doesn’t happen is for the demon realm to have an emperor. And YQY isn’t stupid, he knows who LBH’s father had to be. And pregnancies are delicate, mix species ones even more so! For SXY to die, and LBH to live, meant someone wanted that baby alive. And it wasn’t HHP, who had no knowledge of him, or TLJ, who also had no knowledge of him.

It’s not the first lie OPM had made, but it is the one that YQY was going to get him for.

He starts asking SQH all sorts of questions about the upcoming battle with TLJ. He tried not to do it often- he’s seen the pale look in his shidi’s face when he ended up telling the future. Something didn’t want SQH to tell anyone what happened, and so YQY would just have to do it for him.

He gets the pieces eventually. And SJ is smarter than him, so between the two head disciples, they manage to save SXY from the HHP, on the threat of war between the sects, and take her to TLJ. The war between the sects is only stopped by 1) the knowledge that HHP lied to the whole world, and 2) the demon emperor is siding with CQS. It’s a simple victory.

SQH has no idea what happening, or why YQY, now being heralded as a peace bringer, suddenly wants to have A Talk with MBJ.

YQY: I just want to talk.

SQH: You can’t really-

YQY, with sword: I just want to talk.

SQH: uh-

(Binghe’s parents need help raising a child when both were so not ready for it, and they managed to find a washer woman to help out! Binghe gets three parents! He also still comes to Qing Jing Peak, most because SQH begged SJ and YQY to take him in. He couldn’t go to HHP after all! YQY and SJ share a look and then decide to just go to with the future knowledge.

YQY is finding back anger every time he sees Binghe anywhere near SJ.

SY shows up somewhere. Idk. He tends to just appear lol)

PIDW!YQY goes back in time to his disciple days after he dies. He’s alone and upset, and determined to do things right this time. He won’t take a sword too early, but he will still rush to go save SJ because that has to fix something, right?

At least this time he already knows how to read and write, and the basics of cultivating. Everyone is heralding him as a prodigy, and as soon as his child body is ready, he’s taking a sword to go save SJ.

Except there is one other thing he needs to do. He can leave most of his future sect siblings alone to do their thing, and catch up with them later. There’s no point in interfering with something that doesn’t need his help. But! That slimy traitor Shang Qinghua!

He caused so many problems for them. YQY did not want him as a head disciple of An Ding, or as the peak lord, so he goes to do something about it.

Only… Did SQH always act like that? Was he always so nervous? YQY watched him almost cry as an older disciple shoved work onto him, instead of glaring and backstabbing them later. What had happened to him over the years?

What is actually happening is that YQY had known OG!SQH and this is Airplane. Completely different people! But YQY doesn’t know that, and can only assume that SQH betrayed the sect after years and years of hardship! And YQY is selfish, and very SJ focused, but even he isn’t so much of a hypocrite as to condemn SQH for something he wouldn’t condemn SJ for.

So he goes and befriends him. Mostly to keep an eye on him, and to stop him from being a traitor, but still. Meanwhile, SQH is shocked and confused why the future sect leader is even talking to him?? And what to be his friend?? He didn’t really have much of those, and maybe he liked the company, but he knew what was to happen! What was the point in getting close to YQY only to watch him suffer?

Wow, screw that. SQH pulls some strings and goes up to YQY one day and says, “Wow! Look! A mission, for us, two young disciples without swords, days away! Won’t this be fun?!”

YQY stared at the mission sheet, which looks entirely authentic, blankly. It takes them right to the town that he had left SJ in. “Where did you get this?”

“My Shizun.”

“….”

“….your Shizun?”

“…”

“Uhg, find. I might have forged it. For a vacation? It’ll be fun.”

It was not fun. But they got SJ back and ran for it and made it back to the sect in good time. Their shizun’s were upset, but they couldn’t find a way that the mission could have been forged because it was that good. YQY was suddenly glad to have SQH on his side, and is now completely convinced that he had seer powers.

Maybe that was why he joined the demons last time? Years of abuse at the sect, and knowledge that demons would win? YQY hates it, but is only more determined to keep SQH as a friend. He starts laying hints that if SQH ever meets a demon, that YQY would like to know about it! He’ll be less made if he was told, as opposed to finding out later, promise!

SJ, for his part, can tell what YQY is doing to a point. He’s just glad that YQY has actually started manipulating people to his advantage. His Qi-Ge is really growning up.

Don’t ask me what happens what SQH does come up to YQY to tell him about MBJ. I haven’t thought that far lol

[baoshan-sanren]

Hi, I just finished SV and I Loved it! I have a question though that irks me and I'd love to hear you opinion on it. It's said in the novel that LBH knew no kindness except from his mother and then NYY & SY!SQQ. It seems to me a little like he fell in love with SY's kindness and not really with his personality. He didn't fall in love with NYY's kindness so it could also be an authority thing. My q is, do you think LBH would fall in love w any other Shizun who showed him the slightest kindness?

Okay bear with my nonsense here for a minute because, aside from making fun of everyone and everything, SVSSS is a pretty good study of what happens when reader expectations meet real situations and real flesh and blood people, and just how unrealistic most of them turn out to be. We see PIDW and LBH in SVSSS via mirror of only SY’s perception and his preconceived notions, but we’re also bound to only see SVSSS and SY via mirror of our own perception and with our own preconceived notions (and boy, do a lot of people miss that about SVSSS completely even though SY the judgmental reader and all his baggage are right there). How many chapters does it take for SY to admit that he hasn’t been really viewing LBH as his own person, but a fictional character he had only gotten to know through airplane’s bad writing? I remember how fucking frustrated I kept getting the first time I read SVSSS because SY kept that picture of LBH (the one we never met bc we never read 300+ chapters of airplane’s novel like SY did) firm in his mind despite all evidence that they were not the same person. Who is it that said “compared to the dullest human being actually walking about on the face of the earth and casting his shadow there, the most brilliantly drawn character in a novel is but a bag of bones?" SY’s whole issue with PIDW is that the novel sucked. That most of the characters were one-dimensional and unrealistic, and that even his own scum-villain character had no story/background that would justify his attitude or behavior towards LBH. We only get to see SJ as a person with a history, and grievances, and a boatload of unaddressed trauma because SY digs up and improves all those storylines that airplane had left out. But even knowing that, SY still keeps seeing LBH through the lens of his own preconceived notions, and keeps assigning him motivations that LBH clearly doesn’t have. So I guess my thing is, if it took SY nearly a decade of flesh and blood contact with LBH to figure out that all of his expectations were wrong and inaccurate, can we (the readers of SVSSS) ever view LBH accurately? 

Anyway, not to write an essay (too late) but I guess if I were to speculate on the subject via my own subjective interpretations, I would say that airplane wrote a pretty shitty stallion novel for $$ during which LBH fell for NYY for her “kindness” but right off the bat in SVSSS, we see that NYY does very little except managing to make LBH’s life harder. Still, despite being a character that solely consists of bouncy breasts and questionable life choices in PIDW, she does seem to harbor genuine affection for LBH, and PIDW LBH, who has not gotten affection since his adoptive mother passed, is likely to have latched on to any affection, no matter how destructive it turns out to be, for some self-preservation of his self-esteem and self-worth. Obviously not the healthiest way to obtain either, but hardly unexpected (and we see him doing the same thing with literally every female character in PIDW - Freud would have a field day with just a quarter of this novel). Again, we only know PIDW LBH through SY’s perception, and SY is clearly not the most objective witness, but I find it hard to believe that PIDW LBH ever truly loved any one of the 300+ women in his harem. There is no indication (in what we get from airplane’s writing) that he trusts any of them, and it even seems as if all the harem infighting served as a means to keep them from focusing too hard on LBH as anything other than a prize to be obtained. I mean clearly, PIDW was not meant to be that deep, and we don’t get to read it, so there’s no use speculating much. (I’m sure you noticed my theories are all psychology/trauma centric, which is my bread and butter, and subjective as fuck, so there’s half my point made).

As to whether I think LBH would fall in love with a different shizun who showed him kindness? If kindness is the only factor, I don’t think it’s likely. After all, the 300+ women in his harem in PIDW have all probably showed him some kindness at one time or another. In that respect, SY is certainly not special. There are theories about LBH not actually being sexually attracted to women in PIDW at all, extrapolating on the idea that a more supportive and loving environment during his development years has allowed him to grow up without repressing many things he has clearly repressed in PIDW, his sexuality included. That theory, I suppose, could support the idea that LBH could have just as easily fallen in love with a different man in his immediate vicinity who showed him kindness?

Idk how much I buy into any that; like I said, PIDW was never meant to be that deep, and SVSSS is just full of loose threads I love to yank on (always aware I’ll never see where they lead without an access to MXTX’s brain). I think we’re meant to view PIDW for what it is - a poorly written story for $$ with cardboard cutout characters that, once permeated with “real flesh and blood humans,” turns out to be nothing like the story that the reader (SY) expected to find. And since there’s the same degree of separation between PIDW and SVSSS, as there is between SVSSS and us (the readers), speculating on who LBH might attach himself to if SY was someone else, and how his story might go under any other circumstances, is bound to be as accurate as SY’s predictions concerning PIDW LBH, which turned out to be (as we clearly find out in SVSSS), inaccurate as fuck :)

[sophia-sol]

The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, Volume 3, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

The third volume! It is here! And my main reaction is: aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! I actually had to take a break partway through reading because it was so much and I needed to calm down. But now I am finished and I am a mass of emotions.

Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe spend this whole volume trying genuinely to reach out to each other, to understand each other, and doing a lot of failing but eventually they get there and I AM OVERCOME. God. I can't believe that the first time I read svsss (in the online fan translation) I genuinely believed that there was no evidence that sqq was genuinely happy with how things ended up between him and lbh and that he was basically just like "this might as well happen." Sure he's not very outwardly expressive but it is So Obvious how much sqq loves lbh and ahhhhhh. And lbh! Trying so so so hard to be a good boy for his shizun!! Until xin mo warps his obsession and trauma and leads him to follow his worst impulses, and it's SO UPSETTING but sqq is THERE for him no matter what, now that he finally understands what's driving lbh!

Anyway, this volume also contained a whole bunch of absolutely wild plot stuff that I had 100% forgotten had happened from last time I read it and it was a time and a half to re-experience it. Also I now understand Tianlang-Jun and Zhuzhi-Lang far better too. (and airplane's explanation for why he cut tlj is SO FUNNY. Tlj is like binghe but MORE SO and the readers wouldn't stand for someone stealing lbh's spotlight!!)

I also love this bit about sj!sqq:

"When written within the bounds of the original genre, this kind of character was extremely difficult to handle. You could say he was scum, but he was also pitiful. But if you tried to acknowledge his pathos, his ruthlessness was real too. Characters that were both scummy and tragic always drew aggro, and they were a hotbed for wank, leading comment sections to devolve into massive flame wars."

Hot damn. This is so accurate, to how parts of fandom treat characters who are both scummy and tragic at the same time; it seems like many people struggle to acknowledge that both aspects exist simultaneously, or are only interested in exploring one side. And there are characters like this in so many fandoms! I mean, I spent my youth in the depths of HGSS fandom, and like. Severus Snape. Oh boy.

And the statement at the end that the way svsss goes is what airplane's original outline had INTENDED for pidw, like, ALL of it?? Including the lbh/sqq ship?!?? INCREDIBLE. Real curious how that would have gone with sj!sqq instead of sy!sqq! How would a happy ending have still been reached? AIRPLANE TELL ME MORE about the lost non-harem version of pidw!!!!

Also every single illustration in this volume is an artistic masterpiece, I don't even know which one is my favourite because there are SO MANY perfect illustrations of important scenes.

This volume takes us to the end of the main story of svsss, which means that volume 4 will be entirely the extras, and I am PUMPED. I don't think I successfully managed to find translations of all the extras when I read svsss the first time, given how I've definitely heard references to things that happen that I haven't read, so I cannot wait for NEW BINGQIU CONTENT for me, and also to get to wallow in the airplane extras some more because MOSHANG.

As far as I've seen the publishing date for volume 4 hasn't been announced yet, and I want them to take the time they need to finish making it, and also I am on tenterhooks for more. I am made of nothing but svsss feels!!

[midnyghtmadnes]

Thoughts

So... I finished SVSSS. Gonna just stream out my thoughts. Will be long cause I wanna cover all my final opinions. Then I’ll shut up about it lol.

So, all in all, the novel was enjoyable and fun. Definitely can't say I have the same emotional investment in the characters as I do in MDZS though, except SY, he's my favorite.

To start, I guess this is where fanfics will come into play, but I want more SY and Airplane interactions. They're the only two that can truly understand the other's situation and I think that’d make for a lot of interesting and fun interactions. Though at the same time it's also funny how they have that understanding but their current relationship is basically just like, not a love-hate relationship. But a.. somewhat camaraderie I'll help ya out maybe if you need it-but I also don't particularly like you, relationship. Still, I am falling onto the Cucumberplane wagon (not in a shippy way though).

As for MBJ and Airplane.. I just wish the novel went into the status of their relationship after everything that happened. SQH was constantly stressed out by him and seemed to have had his share of beatings from MBJ. I saw shipping stuff with them as I was reading it and I was like.. ehhhh? At that point the only connection I knew was that MBJ was the one who was supposed to kill him, so I was like ?? Where did that come from. By the end of the extras, I wanna say I'm on board with it lol, but I just wish we saw more.

Tianlang-Jun and Zhuzhi-Lang... :( I love them and am really sad for them. And yes, I do constantly forget that ZZL killed Gongyi Xiao (who I liked a lot), but come on. He's snek Wen Ning and you can't tell me otherwise. I also actually like Shen Jiu's character. Which is kinda funny thinking about it, cause for example I know many ppl find JGY to be a sympathetic villain, and while I can understand, I still hate him lol. But SJ, who feels very similar to JGY in some ways, I find him really interesting and want to explore him more (that's what fanfics are for ayyy). Funny how all the antagonists of this story caught my eye lol. I didn't care for any of the villains in MDZS in terms of nuance (not that they were poorly written, but they just weren't the Type™ I fall for). But SV managed to get me to want to know more about all of them.

Bingqiu final assessment.... complete indifference. It wasn't as terrible as it could've been, and the extras did make it better, but idk. I flipped flopped a lot as I was reading regarding whether I was okay with it. The 50s chapters, no. Then it got better. Then chapter 80 happened and I was just.... it was genuinely painful getting through that chapter lol. I was constantly pausing and just.. collecting myself. Then the extras and I was like, hmmm it seems.. ok I guess. But I still think it's not the healthiest relationship. You can’t tell me his spiel in chapter 79 isn’t still a total guilt trip. Xin Mo exacerbates his negative emotions, it doesn’t make them up. He’s also constantly jealous even in the extras, making comments of suspicion on the slightest things and just wanting SQQ’s attention for himself. His whole world revolves around SY, and that’s just not a healthy thing for any relationship. It’s undeniably obsessive, and while I don’t see LBH acting on his jealousy, I think that’s only because “it’d make Shizun sad” and not because it goes against his morality. I think LBM is just as capable of doing messed up stuff (murder, torture, etc.) as LBG.

I also just feel like there's something that just doesn't connect between SY in the whole novel, and SY in the extras. By chapter 78 he still did not seem particularly reciprocative of LBH's advances. And even within the extras he's very no-touchy and anti-PDA. He tends to refuse LBH’s requests for intimate moments (until the crocodile tears guilt him into doing what LBH wants) and overall is easily embarrassed, like he's not confident in this relationship. I think at the least more lines of buildup should’ve been added, particularly in moments where it was just the two of them.

And you know what also kinda bugs me about it? I dislike how much the story pushed on that SY was confidently straight since birth. If you want to convince me that the initially ‘straight’/uninterested character ends up falling for another guy, just don’t push it so hard in my face contradicting that. Wei Ying flirted with girls, cool yeah. But the novel never gave the impression he was completely closed off to the idea. With how WY is written, I can totally see him being bi. But SY is more like, well I somehow ended up raising the ML as gay but hey that’s not so bad I guess, at the last minute. I can't say I ship LiuShen either, but I can definitely see the appeal when the canon alternative may easily not float your boat. Nothing beats Wangxian in my heart though 💕

As I expected, am sad with how the relationship with Cang Qiong Mountain ended up. I mean I guess it wasn't necessarily on bad terms, but basically his other disciples are left without their shizun and the sect's whole familial relationship is scattered. I guess it's because I appreciate Wangxian staying in the Cloud Recesses, having this space of theirs and the Jingshi that they can call home. I read the fanfics that have LWJ making WY a lotus pond out front and just their beautiful domestic post-canon life. I love that they can go out night hunting with the juniors. They can go out and travel, just the two of them, when they want. They could retire one day if they wanted. But they'll also always have a family to come back to. LQR begrudgingly accepting WY in time. The bread and butter that is Yunmeng bros reconciliation. Bingqiu.. doesn't really have anything like that. For instance, Liu Qingge and LBH are on terms that I don't feel could ever be recuperated the way WWX and JC could. I don't think Bingqiu could ever stay at CQM in complete comfort. So that's just a little sad.

Also is it just me who, when reading, would always imagine TLJ with short hair, even tho nobody ever has short hair in these novels lol.

Anyway lol, I think that about covers everything I can think of. If you got this far, you the real one ✌🏼

[seirclys]

no— thank YOU for making such a wonderful fic ٩(｡•́‿•̀｡)۶ Thanks to your fic and the chapter you left on(which was the SVADD version of the Reynold attic scene— BUT WITH LIU QINGGE AHHHH), I managed to finish my newest chapter of my VADD fic after like. months of hiatus— coincidentally, also my version of the Reynold attic scene

I took a bit of inspo from your fic(but like. SJ and OG!Penny are so similar,, if she was allowed to live for a little while longer I feel she would've become another SJ) so I hope you didn't mind!! |д･)

also funny coincidence "scum villains are destined to die" was my placeholder for the svsss/vadd crossover I'm writing rn

(more under the cut bc i have so many thoughts abt your answers)

I just want to. hold Penelope!SJ in my hands. YOU'RE DOING GREAT HONEY. I feel like with SY's obliviousness he doesn't really fit into the Laila role, and aus are aus for a reason anyways, they don't have to follow the original spirit of the au too closely.

I also don't think our Shang hamster would be capable of writing stuff like that... sorry hamham, but from what we know of you and PIDW, you're not the type to write secret horror twists

To be honest, I'm kind of rooting for SJ returning to the modern world(because Siyeon didn't, and I got so fucking disappointed,, like. girlie. you're just gonna give up? like that?? damn. no wonder I latched onto OG!Penelope as my favorite character) because he actually has friends! The game is just made of caricatures of his own friends(and incomplete ones, too), and it's very much "knife in heart" type of feelings for him.

As for Roxana!SJ, I LOVE the moth change, but I always thought that keeping the butterfly motif would be a good metaphor, especially with the demon butterflies. Beautiful, seemingly fragile, yet so dangerous and predatory at the same time. It's doubly true if he keeps the backstory of not being exactly in good health as a child(aka slavery/abuse), growing up to be more willowy and slender rather than the absolute units that YQY and LBH are in canon.

A way to make it work could be like the bamboo is representative of his inner self?? And the butterflies work as an additional metaphor of glamour which covers up his inner self, just like how in canon he covers up his slave heritage and time as a demonic cultivator with the mask of a "lazy, spoiled young master".

Of course, all up to you, I just brainrotted for a bit and word vomited onto the post.

I personally think that the og story would've worked if it was og!Roxana who regressed into a baby(someone on some forums said that our transmigrator was also og Roxana in her first life?? not sure) albeit her information might be a bit limited. Still, it would've been nice to see Roxana still being the puppetmaster she was, and it would've been a greater usage of her butterflies and capabilities if she gathered a lot more information rather than just relying on the novel's omniscience.

Thanks for your rambling, I'm super excited to see more!!

please. I'm begging you for more crumbs about VADD!Shen Jiu and also that Roxana AU you have from that art post you did of the two.

As a VADD AND SVSSS fan, especially as a fan of the original villains— please. I AM FROTHING AT THE MOUTH FOR MORE. I'm actually in the process of outlining a crossover with the original goods of both.

God, the Roxana one as well— please, PLEASE TELL ME SJ IS ROXIE HE'S SO ROXANA-CODED SOMEHOW. GIVE HIM BUTTERFLIES AND POISON AND— *gets knocked out*

by the way, LOVE your artstyle. scratches an itch i did not know existed in my brain. your chibis as well. they're so cute!!

oh you have no idea how long ive waited to talk about them. this mayyy get a bit long so ill leave it under the readmore.

disclaimer: i intend on finishing these fics so what im going to be talking about is inspirations and unfinished / abandoned ideas and other ideas i have for the works instead of anything relating to the plots themselves

for svadd, sj is a lot more complicated than he appears to be on the surface. im not so sure if what i have written currently is what i /want/ exactly because i know i want his character to go a certain way. the relationships between him and his modern-day friends is one meant to parallel the in-game "shen qingqiu" sj compares himself to and in much the same way, mirror the way that sy contrasts himself with sqq in canon: but instead of being condescending and viewing sqq as a one dimensional character, sj is able to appreciate his nuance while still being rightfully angry over his actions

to me, sj is supposed to be an unreliable narrator who constantly enforces his own thoughts. he tells himself over and over that he misses his home and that he wants to go back, that he absolutely needs to- but then, he turns the other way and finds himself being sucked even deeper into this different one.

i also really wanted to explore how sjs dynamic with a lot of the characters would be affected knowing that they were "based off" his real friends, but again im not very confident with how it came off lol

there was a lot of points in the story where i attempted to add in foreshadowing for the ending i want the story to take... in any case, it definitely wont go the same way as vadd, though i did toy with the idea of a "version" of sy being the main villain haha

(it might still happen for shits and giggles)

as for the roxanna au there are a lot of things ive wanted to do with this au and its good that i havent posted because it means i can keep revising til i come up with something good lol

its a liujiu au with some bingyuan / cumplane thrown into the mix (the cumplane is overwhelmingly toxic btw bingyuan is the healthy one out of the two here 😭) where yes sj is xana !!! he really just makes such a good manhwa villainess haha

i had been puzzling over what i wanted his motif to be-- after all, sj is typically associated with the simplicity and calming bamboo so the glittering butterflies wouldnt work with him- but after some deliberation i decided with using moths for him :3c still subject to change ofc but i think im happy with this as is

the story is somewhat similar to how roxanna goes but surprise sj isnt the transmigrator here! (and honestly, roxanna wouldve been sm better if xana hadnt been a transmigrator... or maybe i just think that because it was only used as a convenient plot point for her to know crucial info. sigh.)

my outline of how the roxanna au goes is basically this:

lqg fucks around and finds out

sj who has been seeing dreams of the "book" sy read knows what will happen to his family if lqg dies

etc

at the same time: sy, transmigrator, attempts to make sure his only surviving older brother lives to a long happy life and the only way he can secure this is by fucking up that hack author

also i killed off qi-ge and idk if i want him to come back. he'll be like the stereotypical dead anime mother for this au lmao

hmm and i think thats all i have to say for these aus... thanks for giving me a chance to ramble on haha ~ much appreciated !! and thank you for the compliment, im flattered!! 🥹🥹💕

[touchmycoat]

qijiu bingqiu (bingliushen??) fix-it fic planning blabber

so i think i gotta keep it tight on SJ’s POV. Right before his death, he makes a deal with Xin Mo (who’s kind of a lone operator bc LBH too has to fight its power) to create this alternate timeline in exchange for his cultivation. Xin Mo can open up new dimensions no problem, and with SJ’s cultivation, it even manages to rewind the timeline. That’s not enough though—Xin Mo’s goal is only consumption, so it takes the deal but reveals there’s nothing that will actually change. The price SJ paid only opened the door.

But that’s fine, ‘cause SJ saw it coming. He also strikes another deal, this time with Death itself? Some sort of large cosmic force. The only thing he wants changed is Qi-ge’s death, and in exchange...the universe takes him. SJ will not get to exist in that second universe. SJ takes the deal.

And that’s the start of canon. SJ-as-SQQ can no longer exist. Instead, SY-as-SQQ is brought in. In order to stay cohered though, YQY’s memories and personality get a little glitched—he is physically incapable of recognizing all the ways SQQ is now not SJ. That’s why, despite SY-as-SQQ clearly being OOC, YQY never seems to see it.

Canon happens, now we’re in the post-canon world where bingqiu are married and settling down, but SQQ still kicks it with his buddies LQG and YQY every now and then. YQY still firmly believes SQQ is SJ, to SY’s increasing consternation. Is it just delusions and wishful thinking? The more YQY treats him as SJ though, the worse SY feels—he shouldn’t be stealing all this affection that doesn’t belong to him.

It all comes to head when SQQ overhears public opinion on YQY, how he’s perfect in everything but his crazy devotion to SQQ. SY thinks enough is enough. He can’t bring SJ back but he sure can tell YQY that his Xiao Jiu is dead, right? The System warns him he’ll be punished but that’s fine, it’s just not fair, SQQ can take another little mental horror trip down to BinggeLand if it means YQY can have some closure.

Except that’s not what happens. He gets YQY in private and says, “no, you don’t understand, Shen Jiu is dead.” He sees the recognition in YQY’s eyes, but he also sees the moment that recognition gets wiped. The sad smile that had fallen off of YQY’s face returns, eerily happy, as YQY says, “my apologies, Qingqiu-shidi, I must have spaced out just now, what did you say?”

Right before the System kicks him into another punishment phase, SY tries again: “Shen Jiu is dead!” He sees the recognition disappear once again from YQY’s eyes.

Inside the punishment world, Bingge has him again. “I’ve been searching for an answer to why the sniveling pathetic version of me gets you as his Shizun, and I think I figured it out.” For a moment, SY’s horrified by the possibility that Bingge has figured out his transmigrator status—if his punishment figures it out, would he be trapped inside the punishment forever? But instead, Bingge says, “Liu Qingge is still alive, meaning Shizun didn’t kill him in the spirit caves. Did his survival render such a dramatic change?” SQQ”s like “yup, yup that’s definitely it. We’re such good friends, he really changed my outlook on life, so I treated you better, mhm.”

“Shizun’s very clever then to save his own life this way. Xin Mo’s already told me about your little bargain.”

That’s how SY learns that SJ had made a deal. Holy shit, he’d thought it was just random phenomenon this whole time, but the original goods had made it all possible? He didn’t know whether to thank SJ or curse him.

But that can’t be the whole story—Xin Mo opened up a timeline, that doesn’t explain why SY is here. Bingge doesn’t know this part, but it sure feels like SJ made a second deal, paying with his life.

What would motivate the original goods to do all this? Sacrifice his hard-won cultivation and his entire existence in this last-ditch effort?

The memory of YQY’s glitching came to mind.

Holy shit. SY owns the two of them more than he’d ever thought.

After the punishment, SY goes back home. He’s with Binghe, and LBH can tell there’s something troubling him.

“Binghe, there’s something this husband wants to do, and I need your help to do it.”

“Shizun, anything.”

“...But there’s a risk it might hurt you. There’s a risk it might ruin everything. It might be straight-forward, but it also might not be. It’s safer for all of us—but especially you, Binghe—if I just let things be.”

“But it’s not something that Shizun can just let be, is it? Otherwise Shizun wouldn’t have said anything. Binghe is honored to help. Anything to ease Shizun’s mind.”

“...I promised I wouldn’t let you come to harm again, and I meant that. Whatever happens, remember that I am your husband, this is my call, and you must do whatever you need to do to protect yourself, okay? Swear to me, Binghe.”

SQQ begins figuring out how to use Xin Mo to go fetch SJ from the other timeline. He figures that if Bingge could exist in this dimension without destroying the space-time continuum, the same ought to be true for SJ. Only trouble is, he can only go get SJ after SJ’s made the deals, because otherwise it’s a paradox, and he wouldn’t exist.

So SQQ brings home limbless, post-torture!SJ. That’s where the fic starts.

By all accounts, the deals are squared: SJ no longer has cultivation and SJ died in SY’s dimension, so SY successfully exists. SJ and SY can exist in the same space totally fine, and SJ begins healing.

(Currently, the fic is completely from SJ’s POV, and very much about coming to terms with being saved and what the hell is going on in this better world.)

The trouble is, SY doesn’t know what’s going to happen when SJ meets YQY again. SJ very thoroughly declines the offer to go see YQY because part of SJ still believes this whole thing is a trick, and if he goes to see YQY he’ll ruin his end of the bargain and YQY will die again. For SY’s part, he’s afraid of SJ going to see YQY too for similar but opposite reasons—if SJ going to see YQY ruins SJ’s end of the bargain, then wouldn’t that mean SY can no longer exist? Would SY just disappear from this universe?

So we get ragtag group therapy fun times. SJ thinks this is probably all an illusion Xin Mo is tricking him with, so treats everything with scorn but also existential apathy. This actually works to his benefit because he’s not clinging to things as hard, and it’s easier for him to admit, for example, that he was definitely in the wrong for abusing LBH, and yeah he was being a spiteful bitch when he did not need to be.

SY tries to keep LBH away from SJ mostly, because c’mon, he’s not about to make his darling husband face his childhood abuser. He does explain the situation to LBH though, in the same terms that Bingge had (mis)understood it lmfao—that the act of saving LQG’s life had prompted an entire 180 on his personality so he came out of the spirit caves a better man. LBH’s jealous as fuck of course, but damn if that doesn’t explain some things. Given the opportunity to see his old and new Shizun side-by-side, LBH takes it, and really gets a moment to see how horribly he’s been treated by SQQ.

So it actually prompts some therapy between SY and LBH too. LBH used to figure that getting pushed into the Abyss was squared by SQQ sacrificing himself to save him. But ofc it turned out SQQ came back and kept on, in his perspective, trying to get away from him. Trying to leave him behind. SQQ’s tried to treat his abandonment issues by going “okay sorry about that I’ll never leave you behind again” but he’s never really explained it.

SJ’s presence gives Binghe the ability to ask the question again and gives SY an answer: shame and cowardice. They’re able to put SJ’s mistreatment of Binghe right in front of them and SY-as-SQQ gets to explain how much it hurt to look back on that bit of their past, but also how much he feared LBH's retaliation. LBH is a little hurt, but also he remembers how he’d raped SQQ under Xin Mo’s control and, looking at what’s left of SJ now, he sees his own darkest possibilities. He really did destroy the man he loves now in another timeline. That helps him contextualize SY’s fears and why SY chose to push him off the cliff.

LQG crashlands into the middle of this whole party as is his wont. He gets a little fix-it too maybe. SY very staunchly repeats the reason for his personality swap—saving LQG in that cave made him a Better Person™. Meeting the original goods again, LQG is forced to believe it. Or like, it doesn’t really matter to him either way, but now he really does see pre-cave SQQ and post-cave SQQ as two completely different people.

SJ though, has to swallow this really weird pill. He remembers trying to save LQG inside the cave but failing, and then getting blamed for LQG’s death. If he’d succeeded, he and LQG would’ve become...this close?? A life debt between them would’ve changed his outlook on life so much???

Well whatever. Now that he’s put down all his old posturing, he more readily gives his reasons for why LQG gets on his nerves so much: the insufferable confidence (arrogant prick), the skills to back it up (privileged bastard), and a flawless cultivator family with all the money and the training and the pedigree. (Meanwhile SY’s like “oh shit that’s me too hahahahah awkward, good thing he still thinks i’m him so he doesn’t just murder me immediately.)

LQG’s a little weirded out too. SY-as-SQQ is his favorite person in the world, so it’s hard to get angry at SJ-as-SQQ since they’re “the same person.” He’s more willing to talk all this out with SJ and brings up all their old beef on his side too: high-handed snootiness coupled with underhanded dick moves, also the whole sleeping-with-prostitutes thing hurting Cang Qiong’s reputation. Ofc they’re snapping at each other this whole time. “There’s no reason for you to do all that!”

SY intervenes if needed. “Actually there is.” Considering the fact that SJ gets indicted for so many things that actually turn out to be not his fault, SY figures he’ll just get it out there. “Remember Qiu Haitang’s accusations against me? I grew up a slave in that household. I grew up believing it was kill or be killed—it doesn’t make sabotaging others right, but...that’s why the Spirit Caves made such an impression on me. I learned it wasn’t just kill or be killed, I can also save people. It opened my eyes to everything I already had, and everything I should be grateful for.”

This is for both LQG and SJ. And it works, to some degree. SJ knows he managed to claw to the top of privilege, but he still felt horribly insecure there. That’s because, he realizes, he never got the thing that would actually grant him security. It's not power or money or reputation—it’s Qi-ge. Holy hell he misses Qi-ge. In anger and betrayal, he’d pushed YQY continuously out of his life, but when faced with certain death the only regret he actually had was bringing Qi-ge down with him. YQY was meant to have survived, and in this world, he did.

So now, after all that, SJ really, really wants to go see his Qi-ge. It’s nice to have survived (and gotten part of his power back—at the very beginning, SY gives one of SQQ’s eyes to SJ as a bit of his golden core in order to save SJ’s life), but it’s so damn hard to live on in this world knowing YQY is only so far away, still very deeply attached to Xiao Jiu.

They try to Cyrano it at first. SY-as-SQQ goes to YQY with SJ’s voice in his ear, telling SY how to treat YQY as him. YQY is so fucking touched and hopeful, and SY is damn uncomfortable. He goes running back to SJ and says it’s not going to work—it’s not going to work because he’s no longer Qi-ge’s Xiao Jiu. He’s Luo Binghe’s husband, okay? He can’t go back to YQY as SJ.

SJ’s fucking furious at first (what kind of shitty variation of himself saves LQG’s life and then falls out of love with Qi-ge???? bitch?????) but what can he do? LQG tells them YQY’s on his way here and SJ hides for now. They still don’t know what will happen if SJ meets YQY, so SY continues to front as SJ for now.

But during this conversation, something changes. Maybe YQY says something, but SJ realizes he’s actually a little willing to take this chance. If Qi-ge does disappear—easy, he’d just kill himself right after. He’d already experienced Qi-ge’s death twice before, and at least this time, he can follow, knowing he’s at least reconciled with Qi-ge through SY.

And if he disappears on his own, then at least he knows there’s a world in which Qi-ge does not die horribly. That’s enough for him.

That, however, leaves the very last possibility—that SY will disappear. At this point both LQG and LBH have figured this out, and are very, very reluctant to let this be the scenario. They don’t see it as two people, they see it as their version of SQQ vs. YQY’s version of SQQ.

So there’s a little tension, but in the end, SY gets the final choice. As soon as he learns SJ is willing to go see YQY, he chooses that path. He simply owes qijiu too much to deny them the possibility of reconciliation. So despite knowing he might disappear from Binghe and LQG’s life, he makes it happen.

(They should get a very painful goodbye scene.)

SY goes out to explain things. “Zhangmen-shixiong may have noticed my change since my qi deviation and the spirit caves.” “I’m happy Xiao Jiu has a brighter outlook on life.” “Yes, but I think Qi-ge, of all people, might actually prefer how I was before, right?” “If Xiao Jiu’s happy, I’m happy.” “Yes, but Shen Jiu wants you. Is that alright?” “—of course. I want Xiao Jiu too—”

SJ comes out. Everyone holds their breath.

Scene cut.

It’s said that Cang Qiong’s Sect Leader Yue Qingyuan disappeared suddenly one afternoon...

But jk, YQY just ran away with SJ, they’re recuperating in the mountains and everybody’s fine and it’s a happy ending.

[disownedbytiime]

Bing/Jiu thoughts (with added Bing/Qiu)

We know how it went when LBG came to the non-pidw world, and I believe that when he left he realized he was missing so much. One of the differences between Bing-ge and Bing-mei is that Bing-mei is more anxious and scared, the betrayal he felt was different than the betrayal Bing-ge felt, which is why Xin Mo was able to control him and not Bing-ge, but this anxiety comes from the love SQQ poured into him; he felt loved and then betrayed, while Bing-ge never felt truly loved. Sure, he had thousands of wives, but isn’t it obvious he’s just trying to fill a hole in his heart?

So what I’m saying, is that after Bing-ge saw what he could’ve had, he probably became more unstable and now he can only imagine how everything could’ve been if he had a nicer Shizun. Or what if he had brought that other SQQ to his side?? Would this hole in his heart be filled?

So! Leaving Bing-ge aside, let’s focus on SJ. Wouldn’t it be nice if he were to come back and reappear at Bing-mei’s world?? Just like BG came, why can’t he see this different world?

Bing-ge realizes he wants a Shizun of his own, and with whatever magic plant or blood or whatever he manages to bring SJ back (limbs attached and everything.) SJ is definitely surprised and scared, he doesn’t understand why he was brought back (possibly to get killed again, he thinks), he doesn’t trust Bing-ge at all, and why would he? But he’s weak from having been revived recently, so he can’t fight him, he can only be at his mercy. And Bing-ge is confused. He looks at him and sees all the damage they both gave each other, but he wants to try? If he can make his Shizun into a better one, like the one he missed, then maybe things could be good again. He doesn’t want to treat him better though, no, he wants to force his Shizun to treat him like the other one, but it’s not easy when SJ resists so much.

So, during this time where they’re both untrusting and confused, still hating each other, SJ arrives to the other world because Xin Mo opens a portal thanks to Bing-ge’s new instability. Also let’s say that because SJ is still weak he can’t come back quickly, he has to stay in that world for a while.

It’s such a shock for him, to see a world so similar to his own but, at the same time, completely alien. And it’s not just because the SQQ of this world is married to that horrid beast, which is an issue of his own. He can’t believe how different everything is. YQY is alive. “He” didn’t kill LQG. The peak lords are all alive and have a family-like relation. MF and NYY are healthy and are still his lovely disciples. “His” reputation is mostly intact, but he married LBH. Was that the variable? Them falling in love is what made this world completely dissimilar?

On the other hand, this world SQQ –SY– would be livid. He’d be scared at first, the original goods, the scum villain, came back. And sure, he understands him better than when he was only a reader, but still, he’s the man who tortured LBH to the point of transforming him into Bing-ge. So, once he understands what happened, oh how he’d chastise him! Why are you like this?! Why did you have to hurt him so bad?! SJ would chastise him back though. How could you fall in love with such a beast?

But Bing-mei? I don’t think he’d be able to hate him. He doesn’t know what exactly happened over there, he only knows that because his Shizun wasn’t around, the “he” from that other world became a playboy tyrant. This may be a different SQQ, but he’s still Shizun, he can’t treat him badly. SY would tell him not to trust him, but he can’t really explain how he knows so much. If Bing-mei ever finds out the truth –that this Shizun treated “him” so badly that made him become “that” and that that world’s LBH ended up assassinating him in the most horrible way– I don’t think he’d be able to hate SJ anyway. Instead, he’d hate Bing-ge even more. So what if SQQ hurt him? How could he do something like that to him? So, he’d make sure this other Shizun would be comfortable. He can’t change what happened over there, but he can show him that, in this world, he doesn’t hate him and would never hurt him.

Of course, SJ would be even more untrusting. The LBH from his world revived him and cured his wounds, and this one is cooking and caring for him. What is wrong with them?

But time passes, and he can’t help but start to feel comfortable. Even though he’s in the demon realm, he’s not in danger (other than from SY’s glares) and there’s a roof over his head and warm food on his table. He also has access to a library and music instruments, so he’s not bored either. Still he doesn’t understand, he thinks this just means he’ll fall worse later.

SY would hate it so much. He’s the one who disgraced LBH in pidw, how can Bing-Mei treat him so well? His food is meant to be only for him, why is he cooking for that other person too? He’s not jealous of course, but he simply can’t stand that he’s there. Why do they have to watch him? He knows he can’t just throw him away (he has his face and he can’t let him roam around, tarnishing his reputation), but why do they have to keep him there? He tries to leave him with SQH (he’s his ‘father’ after all, isn’t him?) but Bing-mei insists that it’s safer if he stays with them. SY can definitely see that SJ is having fun though.

But then, they decided to let him go to Cang Qiong mountain instead of SY. SY can rest and SJ can go see how his old sect is doing, and somehow SY decides that maybe having him around isn’t that bad, he can now spend more free time with his husband (not like he’d ever admit out loud.)

(Around this time Bing-mei decides to feed SJ his blood –he’s surprised Bing-ge didn’t do it already– but he lets the other man know it’s just so he can track where he is, he won’t do anything bad to him. SJ wasn’t even aware this was a thing until it’s too late, but since Bing-mei really doesn’t do anything bad, he simply accepts it.)

SJ goes together with SQH, who gets somehow blamed and roped into helping him in case someone gets suspicious. And they do, especially Qi-ge. They ask him why he’s there alone, did he fight with LBH? He’s never separated from him. And SJ, who still can’t accept that “he” is meant to be together with him, tells them off. (So they all think he definitely had a fight with him), but little by little they realize he’s… different. He seems like he forgot some things, he is wary around them, he kind of resembles his old self? But when they ask neither him nor SQH confirm it, so they can only wonder silently. SJ is somewhat happy that in this world he still has disciples like MF or NYY, but he can’t help but want to know what really happened. How did this world’s SQQ fell for LBH and viseversa.

(As an added, SQH is amazed to see the original villain. He didn’t know before about Bing/qiu meeting BG, so when he finds out, he’s overjoyed that his original sons exists anyway. He’s quite interested in hearing SJ’s story from his own mouth (to see if it’s the same as his own work) and I feel like SJ would be, at first, weirded out but later he’d like the attention and thus, a nice friendship between the two would start –much to SQQ’s chagrin–)

The first thing SJ does is finding ‘Resentment of Chunshan’ –which definitely do not help the case nor ease his worries– he knew LBH was a beast, but for him to act so shameless towards his own Shizun ??? He wants to kill him again and even feels bad for this world’s SQQ; until SQH explains that the author took some artistic liberties and that in real life things didn’t happen that way. Here either SQH tells him what happened or they go with Meng Mo for help (he’d be interested in why there are two SQQs so he’d help him in exchange for info, which he doesn’t get since SJ isn’t even sure why this happened.)

After finding out the whole truth SJ is sort of speechless. It seems like at the beginning everything was the same until suddenly SQQ started treating LBH better out of nowhere, and that simple action was what changed everything. Really? Only by showing some compassion it made the world so different? He realizes it was all SQQ. He doesn’t fail when helping LQG, he doesn’t go to sleep at the burdel, his relationship with YQY is pleasant. And so he realizes, he is the problem. And also the answer.

It truly shakes his world, but what can he do? He’s not SY, even if he tried, there’s no way he could’ve done the same, right? There’s simply no way he could fall for someone like LBH for starters, even if the beast had fallen for him first.

Still, he can’t help but want to see more into their relationship. SY still pushed Bing-mei into the endless abyss (just like he did), but it didn’t feel the same. Bing-mei still brought a lot of problems for SY, he preyed on him, he imprisoned him, but how come SY still died for LBH? What was his problem? Dying for an unfilial disciple. (It’s here where he sees the real power of the demonic blood). But the more he remembers what he saw in the dreamscape and compares it to the couple that live with him, he starts to understand. He doesn’t like it, he can’t feel like this world’s SQQ made a mistake, but seeing that his life wasn’t any better he realizes that maybe this is how things were supposed to be.

Then why does his world exist? Just to be proof that the worst could happen? Is his world simply a bad example? He decides that it’s no use to ponder about this. Even if things were meant to be like in this world, there’s no way he can change the past, nor does he wants to, he thinks. He can only accept his reality, enjoy this ephemeral opportunity he was given and maybe think how things could’ve been. If he has to be honest, this isn’t such a bad life.

Then at some point, months in maybe, when he’s already accepted his life there, Bing-ge finds a way to return to this world. Unknown to everybody, he freaked out when he saw with his own eyes how his Shizun was pulled into a different world. He spent months trying to find a way to get him back, only to find him in the same world he had visited some time before, the word that caused his instability, his need for a Shizun of his own and what brought him to get him back.

As soon as Bing-mei sees him he goes for the kill. Not only he played with SY last time, but he also hurt SJ so much. He can’t forgive him, so they fight again, and once again they are properly matched. SJ is in awe at their fight, and the fact they’re fighting over him, but once he sees how worried and terrified SY is when he sees Bing-ge attack Bing-mei, he finally understand completely. Whatever happened in the past it’s forgiven and forgotten, SY and Bing-mei are fated and in love, and he… he feels jealous. He’s not new to this feeling. He definitely understands it well, that’s what he originally felt towards Bing-ge. But where did that brought him? So he makes a choice.

He knows the match won’t stop until one dies or leaves, so he takes the decision to go back with Bing-ge. Both LBHs are surprised (while SY is silently overjoyed) by such choice. And this is kind of self indulgent, but before he leaves, I want SJ to kiss Bing-mei. He goes to say goodbye and just presses his lips over his. It’s so sudden that Bing-mei doesn’t have time to react, but SJ doesn’t want him to because he knows he’s not the one he wants. He just wanted to feel once how it was to be so close to the man who treated him so well. And then, he leaves. He and Bing-ge simply vanish.

After the initial shock, Bing-mei would be slightly sad. Was he not enough for SJ? How come he had to go back to the man who once killed him? Sure, he didn’t love him like he loves SY, but he cared for him, so it’s painful to have him leave. SY on the other hand is both grateful that the scum villain finally left, but also angry that he kissed his husband. It’s his husband, why did he have to do that? But once he sees Bing-mei sad, he can’t help but feel tender. He tells him that he doesn’t need to worry, even if Bing-ge is powerful, SJ is no longer weak and he probably can defend himself, I mean, is him right? Does LBH thinks so poor of this teacher? (SY knows SJ has no opportunity against Bing-ge but he can’t tell him that.) Bing-Mei feels better, but he feels even better when he finally realizes that SY had been jealous all this time. And so, he soon puts SJ in the back of his mind (but not totally forgotten!) to enjoy this new development of his husband.

Back to Bing/Jiu. When Bing-ge found out SJ was in that world he was surprised, but when he saw SJ kissing Bing-Mei he got mad, even if he accepted to go back with him, how come that other LBH got to have both Shizun for himself? Not only he’s sleeping with one, but he also stole SJ? He hadn’t even touched him yet, less alone kiss him. What right did he have? And he lets SJ know. He asks him if he enjoyed it? Screwing around with a taken man. Did that loser even learn already how to fuck? SJ is not having it though. Because of what he saw in the dreamscape he knows that Bing-ge had been there already, he saw him fool around with SY and knew the reason why he was brought back. So he fights back. Does you harem not satisfy you anymore? He was so jealous of the couple over there that had to bring him back and hope they could be the same. It’s obvious they won’t though, and this is something they both know well.

But what else is there then? SJ is already recovered and could try to fight his way out and leave; but he doesn’t. He demands Bing-ge to bring him dinner and goes to the place he was allowed to sleep. Of course Bing-ge can’t believe his audacity, but when he finds out that he’s got demonic blood inside him –and that SJ is well aware of its abilities– but still chooses to stay, he takes a step back. They’re unsure what to do, but maybe it wouldn’t be bad to cook for him once? He definitely can do it better than that loser over there. (Before this he hadn’t cook for him, he had some of the girls do it instead.)

And so, they continue a weird dynamic for several days: Bing-ge cooks for him and SJ doesn’t leave. Until one day when BG brings him dinner, and just before he leaves, SJ asks him to stay for a minute. And then, SJ he kisses him. He doesn’t know exactly why. He doesn’t like this Bing-ge, other than his physique and cooking abilities, there’s nothing good about him; but it’s a thought he’s had for a while, so he goes ahead. Bing-ge is as surprised as Bing-mei was back then, but that doesn’t stay like that for long because moments later he’s slamming him into the table, kissing him deeply and already fumbling with their clothes to get rid of them. SJ complains about his roughness and about the wasted food, but he doesn’t stop him.

And so, just like that their relationship becomes physical. Neither of them is in love, they don’t yearn or pin for the other, but it’s enough to fill the hole in their hearts for now.

And they both become bolder. Bing-ge conditions SJ that if he’s good and behaves, he’ll maybe be able to bring back some of the peak lords, but he has to stay with him or he’ll kill them again. SJ doesn’t mind if he does or doesn’t (though he does yearn a bit for YQY). Bing-ge also starts seeing his harem less and less, until he spends almost all his time with SJ. SJ complains that he’s too clingy and can’t have time alone, but he’s secretly overjoyed. He even goes and flaunts it in the harem’s faces. And though he wants them to leave them alone (he’s now okay with being with the beast, but having to share him with thousand of women is… not his thing), he also remembers how good NYY was over there, how LMY was a respected cultivator, how all these girls were not useless, so he pushes them into leaving and doing something for themselves. What a bunch of trophy wives! Over there the girls actually had a spine! They fought and had their own ambitions. You, though? You can only follow a beast. He definitely sees the irony in his words, but this is a life he decided for himself, so it’s okay.

And then it’s only them. Are they in love just like the Bing/qiu from that other world? Of course not, that’s impossible. Can everything be deleted and can they change? Most likely not, but they can pretend it’s forgiven and forgotten. And are they happy? Who knows. They feel their hearts filling those holes, but it’s most likely out of necessity and not actually something they wanted. But, so what? It’s enough for them. They finally have something to hold to, so they’ll take it.

(Btw! They definitely use the demonic blood when they have sex! Bing-ge is experienced and he’ll use all his knowledge and SJ won’t be able to reject him.)

Also, side note that would kind of make another huge post, but at some point they find a way to go back to that world and have a foursome with Bing/qiu. How? 🤷🏻‍♀️ who cares, it just happens.

[natsunoomoi]

Oh yeah, addendum to the other post from earlier because I went to bed after I found it, but yeah. I found the spot where it talks about it finally. But just annoyed because I think it was an issue with like textual clean up or my phone browser at the time screwing with me as I went back and forth to the translation notes that it probably wasn't as clearly input into my memory the first time around. I don't have ad blockers on my phone so when I was originally reading it I was having formatting issues that I think distracted my reading sometimes. I still managed to remember quite a lot of details in general for the plot, I think, but I remember it was frustrating to try to get to the end. Checking now on my desktop and the formatting issues are near nonexistent so it's easier to read and jog my memory that oh yeah I did read this part.

But also still annoyed that it's improperly cited on the wiki cuz ugh, that's not how you write a wiki. Proper chapter citations, yo. It is in 81 not 92. *facepalm* Still kind of wondering where that other part I read when I started this book was mentioned? Still haven't seen that at all.

I think also I remember I was a bit more concerned about the overall meaning of what the ending meant too than what Qinghua was saying. Like the way everything turned out in the book it was really sweet and all and I like Qingqiu and Binghe together, but I was and still am really concerned that they only really work as a couple in this book specifically because of the circumstances of the book. I can understand people IRL are repressed or don't think about their own sexuality and maybe discover it later or under the right circumstances, but at the same time the way things unfolded also gives me some concerns. It's more possible that someone who is straight might only think so because it's just the normal accepted type of relationship we see in our modern society so they don't question or explore it so they don't know, but at the same time, I'm also concerned because your sexuality doesn't just change because of one person either. IRL if someone is not into you, they're not into you. I'm a little worried as well that the relationship between the characters is also a little coercive. Like when we're talking about enthusiastic consent IRL it means for all partners and both people in a relationship should thoughtfully respect the other's boundaries and needs, and unfortunately, Binghe tends to not respect boundaries. It makes for good comedy and cuteness in a fictional work, but a lot of young people also read this book and it worries me a bit what some people might learn about relationships in that regard.

Like this maybe a separate thing, but like thinking about the consent in the relationship in this book reminds me of a Reddit post I saw where this one guy was asking for advice about a situation with his gf where his gf would only sleep with him if he put on Sasuke cosplay and she wore Naruto cosplay and basically they acted out her BL fantasy. And like he was very kind and onboard with her roleplay because he wanted her to be happy, but also like when he asked to maybe not do the cosplay, she would get upset and refuse to be intimate with him in any other way. And like, yeah, the situation is very funny, but because this is a real life couple you can see how when only one person bends to their partner's desires and needs, it can leave the other person feeling unheard and empty. As hilarious as it sounds, a lot of people were very sympathetic for the guy and feeling for him cuz like he was doing everything right and giving it a try for her and then also just approaching her maturely and trying to talk about his own comfort in that regard and she wasn't hearing him. So similar to how I feel bad and afraid for that guy, I actually feel kind of concerned and afraid for SY/Qingqiu a little. Like if both of them were my friend IRL, I would legit be worried that Binghe wasn't always listening to Qingqiu's needs. The relationship needs to be an equal give and take or at least balanced, but one side tends to take more and act more selfishly, and it's like, you only feel worried and want them to talk to each other more and grow because you want them to be able to last together.

Still kind of getting into the other books, but in comparison the other relationships in the other two books seem to be more positive and supportive. Like TGCF seems to be the most healthy and functional as an actual relationship.

Also a bit concerned that Airplane's original outline was a teacher x student relationship. Like we can argue it's okay for SY cuz he's not really Qingqiu, but that relationship being the original outline is also risque and that is NG at worst and a huge risk at best. Like it was viewed bad enough already that Qingqiu was written to eye Ning Yingying, it wouldn't be viewed any better if that part of the original outline was in it too. On the plus side the way SVSSS plays out Binghe is an adult already when the situation happens and it is at a more appropriate time, but the optics are pretty bad just because of like ideas of society that a master is like a parent and a disciple is like a child. It's also related to the titles and such that they call each other like shixiong, shidi, etc. They have family dynamics with each other so it's not great. It's not like there aren't some situations IRL where teacher and student become a couple, but in many circumstances it's highly inappropriate. The underage issue is the normal problem. But if they are grown and it is later when you are no longer their teacher I've seen some couples where it worked out, but it's a situation of consenting adults at least. Still a little concerned about the power imbalance dynamics. In IRL situations that's a big thing too. Other than age, one person being able to affect other parts of your life on a whim is a huge stressor on a relationship you don't need. I can kind of understand how it would have worked out in a positive if like Qingqiu had shown empathy for Binghe when they first met because their lives mirror each other's, but like a lot of the other things Qinghua added into the story like the extent of Qingqiu's traumas being played out as asshole behavior became huge barriers. Like I mentioned, with just his traumas it would be very difficult for him to be able to have even a deep friendship with other men, which is similar to how IRL people in real life don't have a chance to explore themselves because of various issues and stuff in society. But also Binghe being ultimately unhappy by just doing what the world thinks he should do and not what he wants on both an in-world level and a meta level. We don't get a whole lot on Shen Jiu, so I'm really curious how that would have actually worked on his end because he seemed really broken, but it's impossible to parse out what of the original plot we can imagine to remove to understand the original outline and how it would have happened. He was very alone and even though the pipa player called him a friend, it doesn't seem like he was able to have a close enough friend to talk with or confide in at all. But is that isolation part of the original outline or part of the PIDW plot?

Anyway, it's things like that that I think about all the time and that's why I end up going into dives into the wiki cuz I want to like think about something and want to check notes real quick to make sure I'm thinking about it right. But the wiki is unreliable. Like also there was one part where it says that the bad cultivation manual was only something the other disciples did to Binghe, but in SJ's POV chapter he literally says that he gave him the shitty one. The wiki also claimed that him pouring tea was also actually an application of medicine misunderstood, but I haven't found any evidence of that either and it's just stuff like that that send me into a rabbit hole that derail me from my original thoughts I'm trying to work out.

[baoshan-sanren]

So thanks to your metas I've finally read SV in like 3 days and now I'm back with a question. Let's say if hypothetically SJ and YQY talked things out and by some miracle SJ wouldn't abuse LBH, do you think that LBH would fall in love with SJ as well given that he'd always thought his Shizun was beautiful, elegant and untouchable. Do you think his feelings would grow into something more with time? I'm living for your takes on blnovels. Thanks in advance

Idk if you can start with SJ not abusing LBH, I think you would have to start with Qiu Jianluo not abusing SJ, or maybe even earlier than that, before he was sold into the Qiu household by human traffickers. To me, there’s no conceivable way where the same SJ who walks away from the carnage at Qiu's Mansion with Wu Yanzi, and later enters the Cang Qiong Mountain, would turn out to be some type of kind and benevolent shizun on par with SY. We don’t get a lot of detailed descriptions of his time with Wu Yanzi, but there is no indication that he enters Cang Qiong Mountain with any intention to give up his festering resentments, regardless of whether YQY can give him a reasonable explanation for never returning or not. 

Look, SJ found himself in the shitty situation in Qiu household because he had been trying to protect YQY. That, on its own, shows he was not yet the heartless villain that the later events would forge him into. But this particular rant of his is also very telling:  

“Of course it’s all your fault! I blame you. We weren’t close with those newcomers, so what if we were stepped on a little? Why did you have to play hero! Are you afraid that people like us with such lowly lives can’t bear it?! If you hadn’t played hero, why would I have helped you? If I hadn’t helped you, how would I have provoked him, and how would that Qiu guy have ended up buying me?! If he hadn’t bought me, how would I have become like this?! Every two days I get beat up a little bit and every three days I get beat up a lot━he plays me like I’m a dog!”

SJ is very young here, but the difference between him and YQY is starkly obvious. MXTX makes use of this dynamic, this clash of personalities, in both SVSSS, MDZS, and TGCF. “Why did you have to play the hero” should be familiar line to readers of MDZS too, and despite some fan opinions, it’s just not... what the so called “good guy” in the narrative would think, let alone say out loud. (Btw, TGCF is the only one of MXTX’s novels in which we see this type of character actually grow and change with time). Right off the bat, we see this very young SJ as someone who only values (and is willing to protect) those of immediate importance to himself, while YQY, as the typical “hero” of the narrative, tries to protect everyone and ends up harming the person he cares about in the process. You will find these two personality types thrust in these types of situations in 90% of danmei (and wuxia/xianxia) stories for a reason. You are supposed to know that YQY will end the tortured hero and SJ will end the blackened villain, the only differences being other related plot lines and their eventual downfall/redemption. (Or in MDZS’s case, absolute stagnation, which flies in the face of typical development for someone like SJ and apparently, confuses a lot of readers as well).

The second part I think is important to mention about that little rant up there is that SJ is already a person who takes no responsibility for his actions. YQY had “acted the hero” so SJ was forced to act as well, therefore his action is YQY’s fault. He is very young at this point, so no one expects him to be a paradigm of magnanimity, but at the same time, he never grows and matures out of this way of thinking. So SJ who enters Cang Qiong Mountain is already proficient at holding resentments and shifting all the blame for his misfortunes to others. At that point, even if YQY had explained how his haste to cultivate quickly had resulted in a qi deviation and the subsequent confinement, there is no indication that SJ would have found him any less guilty for failing to return in a timely manner. (Don't forget that one of the last admonishments SJ gives to YQY before they part is to stop being so brash. YQY doesn’t listen, which results in qi deviation, which results in SJ being stuck in Qiu household for years. It’s unlikely that SJ would find YQY blameless).

However, if you go back further than all the misery and abuse SJ suffered at the hands of Qiu Jianluo and change things (perhaps the human traffickers sell him into a different, better household, etc) then his path would probably diverge too drastically to continue onto the trajectory towards the Cang Qiong Mountain. 

Basically, I see two paths where SJ does not end up the exact heartless scum villain he is in PIDW:

SJ escapes with YQY and they enter Cang Qiong Mountain together. From their earlier relationship, we can infer that SJ is prone to guilt-tripping YQY for his decisions, and seeing himself as the wronged party whenever the situation doesn’t go his way. Would YQY still end up the Sect Leader with SJ by his side? If YQY had never qi deviated and SJ had never started his cultivation so late, would there be a noticeable difference in their skills and strengths? If SJ was more powerful, would YQY not willingly cede the Sect Leader position? And if he didn’t do so, would SJ hold resentment for it? Would the same level of resentment between SJ and LQG still exist? 

YQY manages to go back for SJ before the slaughter at the Qiu Mansion. At that point, SJ had been suffering abuse by Qiu Jianluo for years. Would he blame YQY for not coming for him sooner? For the fact that YQY’s tardiness meant he started cultivating late and may never catch up? If SJ’s resentment is the same and YQY’s guilt is the same, would their relationship be any better? People seem to think that SJ would have held so much gratitude for YQY’s (attempted or otherwise) return that he would wipe the slate clean between them, but this is the same person who had blamed YQY’s heroics for his own situation in the first place. Does that seem like the kind of person who would just... feel so much gratitude to let everything else go? 

And since only that SJ, the one who had lived with Qiu Jianluo’s abuse, who had slaughtered all of Qiu Manor and was further twisted and warped by Wu Yanzi, since that SJ took LBH on as a disciple out of jealousy and resentment and spite, wouldn’t it make more sense that a less villainous SJ would not give LBH a second glance? Rather than being a better shizun, is it not more fitting that he would have allowed LBH to go where he is likely to have gone without SJ’s interference, which is Bai Zhan Peak? 

To me, any possible scenario where SJ (at the moment he is watching potential disciples digging holes) happens to be a better person, is a scenario in which LBH does not become his disciple. 

So no, I don’t see any possible scenario in which LBH falls in love with SJ. I believe that SJ was meant to be seen as flawed from the very beginning, from the moment he had blamed YQY for “playing the hero,” and I can’t imagine any twist of circumstances that would make him similar to the type of person (SY) that LBH would fall in love with. 

[hiemaldesirae]

oh my, im very glad to hear that!! ill check it out once i have more time haha, excited to see it ^^ and of course i dont mind- fandom is all about sharing ideas and collaborating after all, im honestly flattered that i managed to jog your inspiration with my writing aha

to build on some of your thoughts,

as you said, aus dont have to follow the spirit of their inspiration and i wasnt planning on following the storyline of the laila and its possession of yvonne.

instead i had wanted to lean into the idea of the villain being the "system" of svsss- and this also ties into the point of sjs return and sqh's actual involvement with svsss in svadd. its not as straightforward as it seems haha but i can assure you if i do end up making sy a villain it wont be in the same way as vadd.

if it reassures you though in all of my drafts and outlines, not one of the endings ive created has ended with sj staying in svsss ^^

as for the roxanna au, i think personally that sjs personality is very easily crafted around the opportunities he's given in life and that for the personality ive given him, the idea of moths fit more.

whenever it comes to aus that take a character and gives them drastically different circumstances from birth to their counterparts, i find myself weighing the nature vs nurture debate in my head. what ive figured out works for me after writing for several fandoms is that the basic personality traits of someone- (for lqg, for example, it would be stubborn and strong minded)- will stay the same despite their circumstances: this is their "nature".

however, the ways these traits may manifest will differ. in my mind, sj is crafty and adaptable but innately free spirited: he shifts and molds to those of the people around him but the mischievous personality displayed on the street with yue qi is what i draw on for base traits.

in svadd, sj is more laid back than, say, even sy is in canon. but in roxanna, sj has gone through drastically different circumstances: he grows up in a household competing for the fickle affections of his lord father, witnesses his older brothers death (think xana seeing achille's death) and ends up having to take care of his younger brother and his retainer while still keeping favour and preventing his house's downfall. the way sj curries favour is unlike roxanna: he despises the others of his house more than he is willing to curry favour, and after yue qi's death, he is less talkative.

thus for him the best persona i can think of him taking is that of an aloof scholar / master and using his strategic expertise to get into his father's good graces, and the moth motif-- unassuming, simple, plain, works better for a master who works from the shadow.

i do like the idea of the butterfly motif, though i may end up using it for sy himself! it certainly ties into fanons idea of him being a sickly young master haha

and for your thoughts on xana: yeah, definitely- that was the one complaint i had with the story. i read a crossover fic once for a different fandom where the character in xanas place had a gift that allowed them to see into the future and thats how they knew.. personally i think it would have been a better move for her character, but i still love her anyway

thanks so much once again for letting me ramble on and giving me the chance to talk about these aus ^^ <3 loved seeing your ideas, theyre incredibly well thought out and detailed!

please. I'm begging you for more crumbs about VADD!Shen Jiu and also that Roxana AU you have from that art post you did of the two.

As a VADD AND SVSSS fan, especially as a fan of the original villains— please. I AM FROTHING AT THE MOUTH FOR MORE. I'm actually in the process of outlining a crossover with the original goods of both.

God, the Roxana one as well— please, PLEASE TELL ME SJ IS ROXIE HE'S SO ROXANA-CODED SOMEHOW. GIVE HIM BUTTERFLIES AND POISON AND— *gets knocked out*

by the way, LOVE your artstyle. scratches an itch i did not know existed in my brain. your chibis as well. they're so cute!!

oh you have no idea how long ive waited to talk about them. this mayyy get a bit long so ill leave it under the readmore.

disclaimer: i intend on finishing these fics so what im going to be talking about is inspirations and unfinished / abandoned ideas and other ideas i have for the works instead of anything relating to the plots themselves

for svadd, sj is a lot more complicated than he appears to be on the surface. im not so sure if what i have written currently is what i /want/ exactly because i know i want his character to go a certain way. the relationships between him and his modern-day friends is one meant to parallel the in-game "shen qingqiu" sj compares himself to and in much the same way, mirror the way that sy contrasts himself with sqq in canon: but instead of being condescending and viewing sqq as a one dimensional character, sj is able to appreciate his nuance while still being rightfully angry over his actions

to me, sj is supposed to be an unreliable narrator who constantly enforces his own thoughts. he tells himself over and over that he misses his home and that he wants to go back, that he absolutely needs to- but then, he turns the other way and finds himself being sucked even deeper into this different one.

i also really wanted to explore how sjs dynamic with a lot of the characters would be affected knowing that they were "based off" his real friends, but again im not very confident with how it came off lol

there was a lot of points in the story where i attempted to add in foreshadowing for the ending i want the story to take... in any case, it definitely wont go the same way as vadd, though i did toy with the idea of a "version" of sy being the main villain haha

(it might still happen for shits and giggles)

as for the roxanna au there are a lot of things ive wanted to do with this au and its good that i havent posted because it means i can keep revising til i come up with something good lol

its a liujiu au with some bingyuan / cumplane thrown into the mix (the cumplane is overwhelmingly toxic btw bingyuan is the healthy one out of the two here 😭) where yes sj is xana !!! he really just makes such a good manhwa villainess haha

i had been puzzling over what i wanted his motif to be-- after all, sj is typically associated with the simplicity and calming bamboo so the glittering butterflies wouldnt work with him- but after some deliberation i decided with using moths for him :3c still subject to change ofc but i think im happy with this as is

the story is somewhat similar to how roxanna goes but surprise sj isnt the transmigrator here! (and honestly, roxanna wouldve been sm better if xana hadnt been a transmigrator... or maybe i just think that because it was only used as a convenient plot point for her to know crucial info. sigh.)

my outline of how the roxanna au goes is basically this:

lqg fucks around and finds out

sj who has been seeing dreams of the "book" sy read knows what will happen to his family if lqg dies

etc

at the same time: sy, transmigrator, attempts to make sure his only surviving older brother lives to a long happy life and the only way he can secure this is by fucking up that hack author

also i killed off qi-ge and idk if i want him to come back. he'll be like the stereotypical dead anime mother for this au lmao

hmm and i think thats all i have to say for these aus... thanks for giving me a chance to ramble on haha ~ much appreciated !! and thank you for the compliment, im flattered!! 🥹🥹💕